Practice Self Rescue, Practice Buddy Rescue

I took a new guy out for some bottom fishing yesterday. Conditions were nice and calm. There were a bunch of guys heading out to the reef so I thought it would be a good day to bring a tag-along. I made sure the new guy was comfortable with going to the reef. I made it very clear that we did not have to venture that far from shore if he wasn't comfortable. I was more than happy to stay behind and fish closer to the launch. He assured me he was good to go and we made our way out to the fishing grounds. He took his time getting out there and lagged behind a little bit. I checked on him periodically and he said he was fine. He even laughed and said it was exciting to be out there.

I dropped down on some structure and started catching fish right way. I noticed he was fishing a ways back but he was doing well on his own. I pinged him on the radio to tell him fishing was good where I was at. He pinged back saying something like "I'm not sure what to do with all this fish." I took that as a good sign that he was having fun. I figured the fishing was good where he was at so I left him alone and continued jigging away.

I noticed the gap between us was widening. I pinged again to ask how he was doing. I didn't get any response. He was far enough away that it was hard to tell what was going on. I waited a few minutes and pinged again. No response. I decided to head toward him to get a better look at how he was doing. As I neared his location, I was surprised to see him in the water. I announced over the radio to the other guys that he was not in his kayak. I wasn't sure if I needed help at first but I approached with caution. He wasn't in panic mode at this point. He was able to get him self back in his kayak. He seemed a little shaken up but overall he appeared to be fine.

Apparently, he fell in after reaching in the tankwell to grab his fish bag. I'm not sure why he didn't radio back when I pinged him but I suspect he may have been embarrassed. I was paddling around after his lost gear when I look over and he's taking another spill. He becomes angry at this point and is cursing. He struggles with righting his kayak. I can tell that he's fatigued at this point. I radio for anyone close to come and assist. A guy that doesn't frequent this forum came to our aid and positioned himself next his kayak, he was still struggling to get back in. I moved in and we sandwiched his kayak with ours and kept his stable. He was able to climb in over the stern.

Once on the kayak he was laying belly first over the length of it. He was clearly exhausted and he started vomiting. We did our best to comfort him and keep him calm. We urged him to take a few minutes to catch his breath before trying to get back in his seat. Getting him back in the seat of a 2015 Revo13 proved to be difficult. He also had a custom deck mount for his fish finder and rod holder that was adding to his struggle to get in the seat. Eventually we were able to get him to climb over the seat so we could get him sitting down. We kept him sandwiched for a while longer and let him rest. When he appeared to be stable enough to pedal on his own we let go. I asked him if he wanted to go back to the launch or continue fishing. It was at that moment that he leaned over to vomit again. That's when he fell in again. He was too exhausted to get himself in the kayak this time and he needed to be pulled back into his boat. The guy in the PA12 held onto him and his kayak and I swung around the other side of the PA12 and held on to the rail to help prevent them both from going over.

I made the call to escort him back to the launch after the last spill. He was tired, wet, and cold. He didn't have the neck gasket cinched down and he ended up with some water in the suit. He wasn't wearing the proper base layers. He was wearing a T shirt and pajama pants. He was quickly losing core body temp so I made sure to keep him moving as we made the pedal back toward the launch. I was nervous that he'd fall in again. He was shaking pretty bad and not speaking very clearly. A few times he was having a hard time following me; he was wondering in the wrong direction. I had to work to keep him focused on getting back to shore.

Once back at the launch, he was able to walk on his own and get to his truck. I took care of getting his kayak ready to load and I noticed it was full of water. I suspect that he took on some water through the rudder lines while trying to flip his kayak. This may have contributed to him flipping his kayak several times.

I learned a lot from that experience. I'm not sure I want to be responsible for someone's life in the event of something like that happening again. That split second decision to risk your own life to save another's is not a situation I want to experience again. I realize in this sport that I take that risk.

 I urge people to dress appropriately and spend a lot of time practicing getting back in their kayaks. Practicing buddy rescue is also a good idea.

I have a few pictures and some video of the last rescue of the day. I wish I would have had the GoPro running during the whole ordeal. It would have been valuable footage for people to see a real life scenario going down.

I am going to organize a kayak safety day soon. I think it will be a good way to show people how to perform buddy/self rescue.

 

Great post!

Yikes! Nice work on getting him off the water alive. All that stuff mounted on his cockpit needs to go!

You and the guy in the Pro Angler are to be commended for getting the new guy safely back to the launch site.  It's a good thing the conditions were so calm.  Some wind and waves could have turned the day into much more of an epic experience.  It looks like all the stuff the new guy had mounted around the cockpit of his Revolution would make it difficult for even an experienced kayaker to climb back into the kayak.  a couple of questions:

1. What height did he have his seat set at?

2. Did the hardware mounted around the cockpit of his kayak make it more difficult for him to sit sideways in the kayak in order to reach gear in the back of the kayak?  Reaching for things in the back of a sit-on-top without turning sideways seems to be a common cause for tipping over.

3. Do you think he was throwing up because he fell into the water a couple of times?  Or did he get seasick and disoriented, and as a result start to fall in the water?

You and the guy in the Pro Angler are to be commended for getting the new guy safely back to the launch site.  It's a good thing the conditions were so calm.  Some wind and waves could have turned the day into much more of an epic experience.  It looks like all the stuff the new guy had mounted around the cockpit of his Revolution would make it difficult for even an experienced kayaker to climb back into the kayak.  a couple of questions:

1. What height did he have his seat set at?

2. Did the hardware mounted around the cockpit of his kayak make it more difficult for him to sit sideways in the kayak in order to reach gear in the back of the kayak?  Reaching for things in the back of a sit-on-top without turning sideways seems to be a common cause for tipping over.

3. Do you think he was throwing up because he fell into the water a couple of times?  Or did he get seasick and disoriented, and as a result start to fall in the water?

His seat was in the lowest position.

I'm not sure if he got sea sick or if he swallowed some sea water?

He told me he was reaching in the tank well to grab his fish bag and that's when he lost his balance. I'm not sure if that deck mount made it hard for him to sit sideways.

Great post. I took a first time kayak angler out Saturday. I learned my lesson. It was choppy 3 ft wind waves. Surf was actually good.  Decided to fish here instead of flatter Homer because I thought catching a fish was important. 90 minutes into it, he's pretty sea sick. We make the call to head in since we are there to enjoy ourselves. Not battle one of the worst feelings in the planet.

I don't think I would have been able to help a super fatigued or disoriented person in those conditions effectively.

I really hope I didn't turn him off from it. I was stupid. I honestly don't think I'm doing anything special and j don't get seasick. But I guess hours of doing it all the time deadened me to some of the issues that seem silly now but might have been an issue when I was starting out.

I need to assess the info I'm putting out and address some of these issues upfront on the info I provide.

Good write up Chris!

Great post. I took a first time kayak angler out Saturday. I learned my lesson. It was choppy 3 ft wind waves. Surf was actually good.  Decided to fish here instead of flatter Homer because I thought catching a fish was important. 90 minutes into it, he's pretty sea sick. We make the call to head in since we are there to enjoy ourselves. Not battle one of the worst feelings in the planet.

I don't think I would have been able to help a super fatigued or disoriented person in those conditions effectively.

I really hope I didn't turn him off from it. I was stupid. I honestly don't think I'm doing anything special and j don't get seasick. But I guess hours of doing it all the time deadened me to some of the issues that seem silly now but might have been an issue when I was starting out.

I need to assess the info I'm putting out and address some of these issues upfront on the info I provide.


Good write up Chris!

This guy was one of my customers and I promised him for a while that I would take him out fishing when conditions were nice. I hope I didn't scare him off the water. He seemed to be in good spirits right before he left the launch. He was bummed about losing his rod and reel. He tried to apologize for cutting the day short but I made sure he knew that I was more concerned with him getting off the water safely. We will go fish the lakes and get him more adjusted to fishing out of his kayak. He's also going to ditch the deck mount.

Yup. Similar situation.  I think this guy will be ok but I'm definitely acclimating folks first. This is the third time I've taken first timers out of here. Other times were flat calm. But this guy is an avid outdoorsman and I was less concerned.  Seasickness or hangovers don't give a rats patootie about how "tough" a person is.

Other than sea sickness he did great. Especially in big water in a PA. I bet it rocks and rolls more due to its size.

Like I said. Lesson learned.  I plan to get him back out ASAP in much better conditions.

Great job Chris!  Way to be their for the guy and show him the NWKA hospitality of what "team" is all about.  Taking the risk to help someone in conditions that could put you in trouble is always a dicey decision. 

I absolutely agree with your push for anyone with a kayak to become one with it and be able to get back in on their own provided they are not injured or inhibited in any other way.

One thing I would like to add that I learned early on regarding hurling chunks over the side of the kayak. 
Don't! 
What I mean is don't lean over the side to hurl. 

First, you run the risk of rolling as vomiting is a full on upper body internal rejection crunch and leaves you very unstable, along with very weak even for a short amount of time.  This vastly reduces your reaction time. 

Second, it is extremely painful later that day, or the next after heaving sideways and pulled on muscles at odd angles. 

My solution was (and still is) to carry a small cheap light weight dry bag from Wal*Mart that I roll up and clip around my PFD shoulder strap.  Always have it on the ready! 

When needed, I can just unclip it if from my PFD and deploy right under my chin to discretely spew with all my upper body muscles in the factory upright position. Works very much like the barf bags on airplanes. 
Rinse it out (add fresh chum to the fishing grounds), repeat as necessary. 

Again, Chris nice job and thanks for the write up and somber reminder to all.

This is one of the reasons I always fish with someone else if I'm going offshore. I've had a similar incident happen to me, not falling off and unable to get back in. I had a hobie outfitter (2013) that previous owner tightened the seat peg down to hard. Needless to say, once we were about 2 miles offshore I opened up my hatch to get something out....the hull was full of water. I'd made a huge rookie mistake...didn't have a bilge pump. The hull was so full of water that I couldn't move, even w/ turbo fins. My boat was going down, and had I not gone out w/ some buddies, I'm not sure what would've happened. My buddy, in his outback towed me back in. Since then I refuse to fish large bodies of water w/ out other people.

This is one of the reasons I always fish with someone else if I'm going offshore. I've had a similar incident happen to me, not falling off and unable to get back in. I had a hobie outfitter (2013) that previous owner tightened the seat peg down to hard. Needless to say, once we were about 2 miles offshore I opened up my hatch to get something out....the hull was full of water. I'd made a huge rookie mistake...didn't have a bilge pump. The hull was so full of water that I couldn't move, even w/ turbo fins. My boat was going down, and had I not gone out w/ some buddies, I'm not sure what would've happened. My buddy, in his outback towed me back in. Since then I refuse to fish large bodies of water w/ out other people.

Good decision and I'm the same way a second person to fish with is the difference between life and death if you get in trouble and an empty kayak in a light wind can move really fast.

Depending on the severity, sea-sickness can cause serious judgment issues. Combine that with fatigue and cold, and bad things happen. Your description of his behavior heading back to the launch leads me to believe he was probably battling sea sickness the whole time, trying to "push through it" and eventually got sick and delirious.

Good on you and the other guy for helping him so much and seeing him back to safety. I hope he's able to find a way to be safe and get some fishing in.

Depending on the severity, sea-sickness can cause serious judgment issues. Combine that with fatigue and cold, and bad things happen. Your description of his behavior heading back to the launch leads me to believe he was probably battling sea sickness the whole time, trying to "push through it" and eventually got sick and delirious.

Good on you and the other guy for helping him so much and seeing him back to safety. I hope he's able to find a way to be safe and get some fishing in.

Barfing is usually my cue to call it a day.  Especially if I'm alone.

Wow, sobering reminder. Great response and writeup.

Love the organized practice session idea.  You might consider filing a float plan beforehand with the Coast Guard,  including the intended activities. They appreciate knowing that sort of thing when they come upon bodies in the water. Just be sure to call in afterwards to prevent an APB on your behalf. 

I am going to organize a kayak safety day soon. I think it will be a good way to show people how to perform buddy/self rescue.

Don't need a barf bag with a self bailing kayak... No worse than all the other stuff; lincod puke, blood fish slime and everything else. Even the times of relief zipper use!... Just sayin...

With all the years of my career in the Navy, I've been lucky enough to never get seasick with the exception of one time while on my kayak. I can attest to the fatigue and soreness that quickly sets in! As "un-luck" would have it, I still had crab pots out. It was everything I could do to get them back in and strapped down. I wonder why nobody wanted to help me?

Chris: Glad you were close by- at least a short distance away to help. It was a hard sprint for us after the announcement on the radio, but still too far away to be of assistance. Glad to see you again but sorry your trip was cut short. I do think that's part of the package when you "represent", however, now the fish gods will shine in your favor for your good deeds.